Mentoring and coaching

Introduction

This award is of relevance to colleagues who are involved in mentoring or coaching of colleagues. It is a requirement of the award that participants do some relevant mentoring or coaching work as part of the learning. The award is suitable for those involved in the post-compulsory, adult education and lifelong learning sectors.

For the purposes of this award, coaching is treated as a type of mentoring. Programmes can be concerned with either mentoring and coaching or both.

Successful graduates of programmes accredited against this award are entitled to refer to themselves as a SEDA Recognised Mentor.

Aims

• To support individuals in their professional development as mentors and/or coaches
• To recognise individual progress, practice and professional achievement
• To enhance professional practice in mentoring and/or coaching
• To encourage and support educational development initiatives for the enhancement of learning and teaching and the student experience
• To help create a group of mentors and/or coaches with knowledge, skills and attributes to effectively encourage and support colleagues.

Audience

This award is for those who are involved in staff development or support and have the opportunity to mentor or coach colleagues. Participants may be from any profession or discipline in the sector, and from both academic or professional services.

Values, core development outcomes and specialist outcomes

The Professional Development Framework (PDF) identifies outcomes and values which any locally designed mentoring or coaching programme must show that it assesses. The specialist outcomes build effectively upon the values and core development outcomes as they support the undertaking of learning and teaching enhancement initiatives and demonstrate a scholarly and developmental approach to mentoring and/or coaching practice.

Values

Award recipients will have shown how their work is informed by the SEDA Values:

1. Developing understanding of how people learn
2. Practicing in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical
3. Working with and developing learning communities
4. Valuing diversity and promoting inclusivity
5. Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes.

Core development outcomes

The emphasis in the development outcomes is on the reflective process of professional development. The outcomes put the onus on the individual to take responsibility for their own development and suggest a process for this. Award recipients will be able to:

1. Identify their own professional development goals, directions or priorities
2. Plan for their initial and / or continuing professional development
3. Undertake appropriate development activities
4. Review their development and their practice, and the relations between them.

Specialist outcomes

Additionally award recipients will be able to:

1. Recognise where mentoring/coaching may be beneficially used for staff development
2. Develop and implement strategies and plans for mentoring/coaching schemes or for the mentoring/coaching of individuals
3. Demonstrate understanding of mentoring/coaching theory and process in order to effectively mentor/coach colleagues in connection with one or more specific professional development objectives
4. Analyse and apply information from the relevant literature and from other sources (e.g. experience, peers) to inform and enhance mentoring/coaching practice.